Texas: Republicans Threaten Companies Offering to Pay for Employees' Out-of-State Abortions

[appalachiablue]

- Daily Kos, May 23, 2022. Ed. 'Texas Republicans threaten 'swift and decisive action' against firms covering workers' abortions.'

Fourteen Texas Republican lawmakers are already planning their next move against abortion access in a post-Roe United States. They’re going to introduce bills going after corporations that pay for abortion in states where it is legal, barring companies from offering health insurance that covers abortion, and even potentially involving criminal charges against executives, The Texas Tribune reports.

Responding to an announcement by Lyft CEO Logan Green that the company will cover costs for some of its employees forced to travel more than 100 miles for abortion care as well as covering legal fees for drivers sued under abortion vigilante laws, the Texas Republicans wrote, “The state of Texas will take swift and decisive action if you do not immediately rescind your recently announced policy to pay for the travel expenses of women who abort their unborn children.”

RELATED STORY: The forced birthers who’ve taken over the Supreme Court, Republican Party are not ‘pro-life’
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/11/2091385/-The-end-of-rape-and-incest-exceptions-for-abortion-make-it-clear-Forced-birthers-are-not-pro-life

- The next Texas legislative session is 7 months away, so “swift” action is definitely an exaggeration.

If Texas Republicans pass this law, they’re going to be attacking many of the same companies they’ve bragged about drawing to their state. When Tesla announced it would move its headquarters to Austin, Gov. Gregg Abbott attributed the move to CEO Elon Musk seeing the state as a place for innovation and transformation. “He knows he has a better ability to do that in Texas with the freedoms that we offer him, with the low costs that we offer him, than he does in other places, like California,” Abbott said.

Freedoms, eh? Tesla is among the companies that have said they will cover employees’ costs in traveling out-of-state for abortion care, & now Texas Republicans are threatening to bar such companies from doing business in Texas.

Other companies that have made similar commitments include Amazon, 2nd-largest employer in the US; dating apps Bumble, based in Austin, & Match, based in Dallas; Levi Strauss; Salesforce; Yelp; & Starbucks. That would be a lot of major companies for the GOP to ban from doing business in Texas over their internal abortion-related policies & would create an interesting challenge for Abbott & future Texas governors hoping to lure new businesses by promising “freedom.” The backdrop of all of this is the determination of GOP lawmakers in Texas & other states to make pregnant people suffer, placing the state’s control of pregnant bodies above every other priority. It's already working. It’s not enough for them. RELATED STORIES:...

- More + Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/23/2099721/-Texas-Republicans-threaten-companies-offering-to-pay-for-employees-out-of-state-abortions
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*Texas Tribune: "Businesses that help employees get abortions could be next target of Texas lawmakers if Roe v. Wade is overturned," May 23, 2022. - Fourteen GOP legislators warned Lyft that they’d seek to ban companies that pay for abortions from doing business in Texas. The extent of support for the idea is unclear... https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/23/texas-companies-pay-abortions/
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- Governor Greg Abbott of Texas.

[OhZone]

1. Those companies should just prep to move to a non-facist state.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. That was my first thought

Texas always says they offer a less regulated business environment. Not true.

[TheRealNorth]

3. Only the freedom to pollute the environment and stop your workers from unionizing....

Otherwise, your bodies belong to Republicans in TX.

[exboyfil]

8. Problem with Lyft is that its presence is for the customers

Only pressure you end up applying is for those who are inconvenienced by fewer ride options.

Companies with manufacturing and offices in the state - they definitely should be looking at pulling up stakes and leaving.

[PortTack]

4. If the companies offer to pay a woman via some overtime measure, pay their FICA or some

Other measure..like paid vacation there’s really nothing they can do!

[Lovie777]

5. All of this yelling about too much government in our personal lives . . . .

freedumb, and yet, red states are all in a women's personal lives, LGBT's personal lives, and threaten parents of transgender children. Voting suppression and gerrymandering. Regular people will have to compensate for the wealthy not paying their fair share of taxes, GQP wants to raise our taxes and destroy SSI and Medicaid and Medicare and ACA.

And that's not all of what the GQP plan to do to us.

[appalachiablue]

7. ++

[TlalocW]

6. One of the podcasts I listen to

Often talks about "Crazy billionaire money" - what they would do if only they had the cash. I would love for these companies to do what they say they're going to do, but do it in such a way where the money paid is through a special bonus for a co-worker or winning it through a raffle, etc. just to thumb their nose at republicans.

Oh, that $2000 paid to Linda who then went to another state and had an abortion? We had a trivia contest for employee appreciation day, and she was able to name all four Beatles. Can't control what she does with her winnings, y'know!

TlalocW

[Gore1FL]

9. Tell me you are going to drive jobs away without saying you are going to drive jobs away.

I suspect a lot of companies won't be able to pull up stakes, but some will. Others will look elsewhere when setting up new operations.

TX republicans are killing TX.

[Aristus]

10. If I were CEO of Lyfte, I would have responded to the ultimatum with the perfect laconic answer:

"If..."